In our latest episode of What the Tech from Boast, we sat down with Philipp Baumanns, Co-Founder and COO at telli, to discuss how AI voice agents are transforming B2C customer journeys, and why the most successful entrepreneurs focus on solving problems they've experienced firsthand.
Philipp's journey started on the other side of the entrepreneurship equation. He worked in venture capital and private equity, looking at companies from the outside. But he quickly realized the most interesting stories came from the entrepreneurs actually building the businesses.
"I very quickly realized that usually the more interesting people and the really cool stories were from the entrepreneurs that were building the businesses that the companies invested in. That's how I first got hooked on entrepreneurship."
Today, telli builds AI voice agents that automate sales and customer service for B2C companies, handling everything from lead qualification and conversion to inbound support and follow-ups across healthcare, energy, real estate, utilities, and more.
Backed by Y Combinator and Cherry Ventures, telli serves customers ranging from Sky (Comcast subsidiary) to Viessmann (part of Carrier) with a mission that resonates deeply with Boast's ethos: Enable businesses to achieve growth and scale without overextending their resources.
The Problem: A 150-Person Call Center That Could Never Be Streamlined
The idea for telli came from Philipp's previous role at Enpal, Europe's largest private consumer provider of renewable energy solutions (solar, heat pumps, etc.).
Philipp and his co-founder were tasked with building out Enpal's heat pump business—a massive market opportunity since essentially every house could power its heating with a heat pump.
The challenge: The entire customer journey from first lead to installation and servicing involved multiple touchpoints with the customer. It was a €30,000 investment, so there were long sales cycles, lots of interactions with salespeople and installers, and countless phone calls.
"We essentially built out a call center entirely. It was 150 people in the first one or two years, and then it scaled from there, to do everything from outbound lead qualifications, appointment bookings, answering the phone when there was a servicing issue, or answering questions throughout the entire process."
They automated so much around it, but could never really streamline the call center itself.
"That's how we came up with the idea: You can automate a lot of these repetitive tasks via the phone to then have your team really focus on longer conversations that matter for the customer."
The Solution: AI Voice Agents That Handle the Repetitive, Freeing Teams for What Matters
telli builds AI voice agents that automate both sales and customer service touchpoints across the customer journey.
Real-world examples:
Sky (Comcast subsidiary):
- Sales: Upselling campaigns for new products at scale
- Proactive care: If you have an issue with your Sky router, you get a call from a telli agent that helps troubleshoot the issue
"It's a great experience for the customer because they get proactively notified about an issue, and then it gets troubleshooted—completely AI-enabled without huge overhead involved."
Viessmann (Carrier/HVAC):
- Customer service: End consumers or installers calling inbound for questions, getting them answered quickly
- Lead qualification: Leads ask questions about the product they requested, then book appointments with local installers
"It goes to show you can use this in various different parts of the customer journey."
The Ethos: Superpowers for Teams, Not Replacements
What stood out in our conversation: telli isn't about replacing human teams. It's about giving them superpowers.
As Philipp put it: "You can automate a lot of these repetitive tasks to then have your team really focus on longer conversations that matter for the customer."
This resonates deeply with Boast's approach.
We use AI and integrations not as off-the-shelf tools for customers to build their own R&D tax credit claims, but to help our internal experts work more focused; taking the noise out of the equation, quickly identifying what qualifies, and giving our team superpowers to deliver better results faster.
The pattern: Don't pull expert teams away from their core focus to handle repetitive tasks. Automate the noise. Let humans do what humans do best.
From VC to Entrepreneur: The Long-Term Perspective Shift
When we asked Philipp about moving from venture capital to entrepreneurship, he emphasized the biggest shift: time horizon.
"When you have outside-in perspectives where you have predefined project sizes—'For three months I'm gonna work on this topic'—you always have this limited view. The biggest change is that once you start building a company, you look much, much further. You identify with the product or service you're building, and you're planning for years and years ahead."
The shift: From quarterly goals to long-term vision. From evaluating companies to building one. From looking at entrepreneurs to becoming one.
Building the Team: Technical Expertise + Customer Experience
telli's founding team combined the perfect ingredients:
Finn (co-founder): Philipp worked with him at Enpal. They knew the industry, the customers, the problem deeply.
Seb (co-founder): Computer science from Stanford. Played around with voice AI models early. Brought technical expertise.
"We identified a massive problem. We knew the industry very well. And then we had our technical counterpart who is familiar with tech solutions and the underlying technology. That was the perfect match."
What they built from there:
- Super strong technical team in Berlin: Experts on backend voice infrastructure, UI/UX to make it easy for customers
- Great customer operations team: Goes into companies and helps implement the solution—critical because even larger customers need initial help getting it up and running
The lesson Philipp emphasized: "You need a super strong technical team at the onset. A lot of people have business degrees and think they can take it all on themselves or that AI will do the heavy lifting. But to actually build the solution, get superstars you're comfortable working with in your corner."
Balancing Two Opposite Customer Groups
When we asked what's next for 2026, Philipp highlighted an interesting dynamic:
Early adopters who easily adopt AI and are already using Claude to interact with products.
Traditional companies that haven't even made the switch to cloud-based CRM systems yet.
"Balancing these two different opposites of customer groups is a really big opportunity. We're building a really great product that adds new channels to go beyond just telephony and voice—moving more toward an agentic development of how you interact with, build up, and launch agents."
What's coming:
- Expansion beyond telephony
- More agentic features for building and launching agents
- New channels for customer interaction
- Features that will excite current customers and attract new ones
Key Takeaways
Solve problems you've experienced firsthand – Philipp built a 150-person call center at Enpal and couldn't streamline it. That became telli.
The long-term perspective matters – Moving from VC to entrepreneur means shifting from quarterly goals to years-ahead vision and identifying with what you're building.
Technical expertise is non-negotiable – Don't assume AI will do the heavy lifting. Get superstars you trust in your corner from day one.
Work with people for the long haul – Founding a business is a marriage. If you don't want to be with these people long-term, it'll take much longer to reach your goals.
Customer evangelists fund growth – When people love your solution and pay a premium for it, it makes building the product and getting revenue so much easier.
AI gives teams superpowers, doesn't replace them – Automate repetitive tasks so human experts can focus on conversations that matter for customers.
Balance early adopters and traditional customers – There's opportunity in serving both companies already using Claude and companies that haven't switched to cloud CRMs yet.
International growth is possible from day one – telli works with customers across Europe and the US, serving enterprises like Sky and Viessmann.
Listen to the Full Episode
Want to hear Philipp's full story about building a 150-person call center, why VC made him want to become an entrepreneur, and what's next for telli in 2026?
Listen to the full episode of What the Tech from Boast.
About What the Tech from Boast
What the Tech features conversations with brilliant minds behind new and exciting tech initiatives. Hosted by Paul Davenport, Boast.AI's Head of Content.
Learn More About telli
If you're looking to streamline your customer journey with AI voice agents that handle sales and customer service without losing the human touch, visit www.telli.com.
Learn More About R&D Tax Credits
If you're building innovative AI solutions and want to access R&D tax credits to fuel your growth, Boast.AI can help, just like we help our internal teams focus on what matters most by automating the noise.
